Blog
One woman’s battle against extremism
By Roni Hazon-Weiss I was delighted to take part in promoting public awareness for preventing the exclusion of women in public spaces in Jerusalem specifically and Israel in general. My name is Roni Hazon-Weiss, 28 years old, Jerusalemite, married to Nachi and mother to 9 month old Yuval, a teacher and educator at the Givat…
Jews in the Desert and Conversations about Social Justice: NIF at JFNA’s TribeFest
By: Penina Eilberg-Schwartz, NIF Director of New Generations in San Francisco I had the great pleasure of representing the New Israel Fund at the Jewish Federations of North America’s (JFNA) TribeFest conference at the end of March. TribeFest was a remarkable thing – over 1500 young Jews convening in Las Vegas to talk about Jewish…
Don’t Despair of Religious Zionism
2 April 2012 By Gadi Gvaryahu, Field Coordinator of Yudbet be-Heshvan During the waiting period before the Six-Day War, the most moderate ministers in Levi Eshkol’s government were those from the National Religious Party. Since then, Religious Zionism has undergone a revolution; the sector that forged a historic agreement with Mapai has become a right-wing…
The Sweet Taste of Justice
I fell in love with Jerusalem when I came here last year as part of a year-long study for my rabbinical program in the US. Like many good love stories, it was unexpected and even fraught. After months of praying with Women of the Wall, visiting the West Bank, arguing in the supermarket, and feeling upset about how Israel didn’t match my vision of a Jewish State, I realized that it only hurt because I cared so much.
Netanyahu’s Fiscal Policies
19 March 2012 Our colleagues at the Adva Center prepared the following analysis of the Netanyahu government’s follow up to the social justice protests as seen in its fiscal policies. A must read for anyone watching these issues. Click here for the PowerPoint.
Belief in change
8 March 2012 By Ruth Eglash Ronit Heyd, director of Shatil, is of the opinion that “hope should and could be the driving force behind our decisions and actions.” Ronit Heyd, Age: 37 Profession: Director of Shatil – leading social change, an initiative of the New Israel Fund. Place of birth: New Jersey (By chance….
Adalah’s advocacy brings Israel closer to the ideal established by Israel’s founders
March 6, 2012 The not-so-stealth campaigns against the Arab civil rights organization Adalah, its supporter the New Israel Fund, and the values of democratic and minority rights are hitting new lows. For example, NGO Monitor recently went public with an op-ed it knew to be wrong, along with some manipulative interpretation. Having wrongly accused Adalah…
Gender Trouble
Suddenly, it seems, gender segregation is everywhere in Israel—buses, army bases, Jerusalem sidewalks, Beit Shemesh schoolyards and, above all, the front pages. What is going on here? Why is all this happening now? Let’s begin with the second question. “This”—that is, efforts by some sectors of Israeli Orthodoxy to set terms for the public presence…
Violence Against Women Degrades Jewish Concept of Modesty
The unconscionable physical and verbal violence against women in Beit Shemesh and elsewhere have degraded the religious concept of tzeniut (modesty) by associating it with misogyny and oppression. Some Orthodox condemnations of that violence, by objecting to means while acknowledging shared ends, have added to that degradation. My purpose here is to directly reject the ends, in other words…
Social Justice in Jerusalem
On Sunday, January 1st in Jerusalem, hundreds of men and women boarded segregated bus lines to protest the ultra-Orthodox exclusion of women. Gender discrimination and the exclusion of women from the public sphere is one of the many problems facing communities in the fractured society that makes up modern Israel. On December 2, I participated…